Thieves Posing As Water Utility Workers On The Rise

Water utilities are on high alert this year, trying to prevent their customers from getting scammed.

In Hillsboro, OR, police are warning "the public to be safe and be aware of activity by utility worker impostors. Police recently received a report of two male suspects who gained access to a water customer's residence by posing as employees," the Oregonian reported.

The local water department and the Tualatin Valley Water District headed up outreach to ratepayers, explaining how to identify if a person is truly a water employee.

"[They both said] their employees drive vehicles with utility logos displaying state-exempt license plates, carry identification and usually wear uniforms. The utilities also said employees will never ask to enter a home without a prior appointment," the report said.

In Waco, TX, water utilities are working to stop a similar problem.

"Officials are warning of a scam after three business customers reported incidents [in February] in which the companies were contacted by someone claiming to collect payment for Waco’s water department, city water utilities spokesman Jonathan Echols said," the Waco Tribune reported.

"In each case, someone placed a phone call to a business claiming to be a city of Waco employee and said water service would be disconnected unless the business made an immediate credit card payment over the phone, Echols said," according to the report. "Waco’s water utility services department does not initiate calls to customers demanding immediate payment, he said."

The nation's largest publicly traded utility, American Water, has done outreach around a scam that used President Obama's name to fool unsuspecting customers.

"The scam, which has been reported in a number of states, claims that President Barack Obama is providing credits or applying payments to utility bills. Customers are asked to provide their social security numbers to apply for the program. The scammers then give customers a phony bank routing number," the company explained.

"Customers are told to provide the routing number to pay their utility bills or to receive a credit on their utility bills. According to reports, the scammers are also emailing, texting and using social media to reach customers," the company said.

Despite that the utility had only recorded one instance of the scam occurring, the company decided to begin outreach anyway. Vice President of Customer Service Meg Neafsey explained the approach.

"We care about our customers and want to protect them from becoming victims of identity theft," she said. "American Water customer service representatives do not ask customers to tell them their social security number for any transactions, nor do they ask for a customer's password. If anyone asks for this information, do not provide it."